Do you sometimes feel that your office isn't a place of business but a madhouse in disguise? Is risk-taking so discouraged that mediocrity becomes the order of the day? If all this sounds familiar, your company may well be embarked on 'a trip to Abilene.' Now, Jerry Harvey once again rocks the business world. In this new book, he offers a series of insightful and often uproaringly funny 'meditations' on the craziness of everyday organizational life.

An illustrated history of Abilene, Texas paired with histories of the local companies

Abilene History in Plain Sight is a guide to the people, places, and events that define Abilene. It provides the high vantage point from which you come to know the lives behind the names--Cooper High School, Shotwell Stadium, and Maxwell Golf Course--and to meet those who are honored by the naming of a park or street (such as Egbert Kirby, Nelson Wilson, Vera Minter, and Walker Ely). In this engaging book, the past is picked up, dusted off, and given a new shine. As you learn the story behind the church, school, or college that you drive past, it will create a connection that serves to endear Abilene to you more deeply. This is a book that brings the relics of the past out of the dark and straight into the hometown in your heart.

During the 1870s, there was wondrous change in West Texas. The area was ripe for settlement, and as the Texas and Pacific Railroad pushed west from Fort Worth, towns began springing up along the tracks. Ranchers coming to the area took advantage of the vast grasslands, and the new arrival of settlers was the beginning of a town named Abilene. Deriving its namesake from the town of Abilene, Kansas, the locals hoped the city would become a shipping point for cattle on their way to eastern markets. The town has since grown to be one of West Texass most thriving metropolitan areas. The citywhich is home to Dyess Air Force Baseis also well known for its numerous parks, schools, universities, and historic neighborhoods that are enjoyed by its 120,000 residents.

In 1881, the Texas & Pacific Railroad described Abilene as the "Future Great City of the West." While the train line was laying rails west out of Fort Worth, a group of ranchers, wanting the new town to become a prominent cattle-shipping point, selected the name Abilene after Abilene, Kansas, which was a main cattle-shipping town in the 1870s. With the arrival of the railroad to Abilene, this part of Texas opened up for settlement. Families rushed to establish the town and set up new businesses, but it was the military coming to Abilene that really made the city's population explode. Lost Abilene documents the early homes, businesses, schools, and entertainment that helped shape the city.

Internet usage over the last decade has exploded. Yet every day, we are seeing more and more compromises of information which is attached to the Internet. The Abilene Net explores why it is strategically impossible to fully and permanently protect information which is accessible through the Internet and proposes an alternative approach to electronic commerce. The Abilene Net contrasts and compares the current cyber war with traditional warfare and discusses a variety of issues associated with transmitting sensitive information over an open network which is accessible to virtually everyone. The book defines a series of security axioms and strategies to be considered when implementing a layered security model, recommending fundamental changes in our strategies associated with the exchange of sensitive information. The Abilene Net is a must read for CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CTOs, and other corporate officers who will be held increasingly responsible for protecting their companys information resources and the information of their customers.

RURAL ODYSSEY III Dreams Fulfilled and Back to Abilene, A Fictional and Historical Narrative” is the third in the series of fictionalized stories based on Mark Curran’s autobiography “The Farm.” Mike O’Brien and Mariah Palafox fulfill their dreams of graduate education, travel and research in Mexico, and return to Abilene where life offers new adventures.